July 2, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces new TV deals, more
WWE officially announced this week the television deals that had been reported on weeks ago, with Raw staying on Monday night on the USA Network and Smackdown moving to a live Friday night from 8-10 p.m. time slot on FOX.
The deals will run from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2024.
The WWE released information that the total worldwide value of its television deals, which were $215 million last year (this includes both U.S. and the rest of the world), increases to $235 million this year. In 2019, with the big deals kicking in for the last three months, it would be up to $314 million.
The combination of the FOX and USA Network deals would be $435 million in 2020, $462 million in 2021, and escalate past $470 million in 2022. Right now the company is estimating $79 million for television rights outside the U.S. in 2020 and $80 million in 2021, but those numbers because of the various deals that haven’t come due, can change, meaning a projection of $542 million in 2021.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.